


To Go

by Lynzee005



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: Gen, Norma to the rescue, One Shot, someone forgot her formal wear...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 12:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8844769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynzee005/pseuds/Lynzee005
Summary: Denise is a woman on a mission, and she knows just the gal to turn to for help.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> For my dear friend FlowMorphia--I've known her for years, almost since I joined the fandom, and she is both a tremendous writer and an all-around genuinely sweet, funny person with a big heart and a deep soul. When she requested a fic about Denise, I threw myself into the task. This is the idea popped into my head and wouldn't leave. It's short, but I hope it's sweet enough to satiate! Denise at the Double R...

At 1:15 pm, the Double R Diner was about half full. The noon hour rush had just ended, and only a few leisurely stragglers saw fit to continue their hushed conversations over half-finished cups of coffee and plates of pie cleaned and scraped down to the last morsel. To Denise Bryson, just coming in from the street outside, it seemed as though the diner itself was decompressing, breathing a sigh of relief now that most of the the dishes had been cleared and the tables wiped down.

Behind the counter, Norma Jennings lifted her head and greeted the DEA Agent. “Good afternoon, Agent Bryson. Here for lunch?”

Denise nodded and smiled. “Thanks, yes,” she replied, gesturing with a nod of her head to an open booth along the wall. Norma smiled and walked over to the booth to meet her, coffee pot and vinyl menu in hand. Her apron was stained and with the back of her free hand, she swiped some loose strands of hair off her forehead. 

Denise eyed her up and down; Norma was certainly one of the most beautiful women in town, maybe that Denise had ever seen, even when she looked harried and overworked. _That smile alone could light up a dark room like no one else’s_ , Denise thought, remembering suddenly the other attractive waitress employed at the diner and grinning to herself. _Well, maybe like Shelly Johnson’s too…_

“Busy day?” Denise asked Norma as she slid into the booth.

Norma poured a cup of coffee and set it on the table top. “It usually is,” she said. “But you won’t hear me complaining.”

Denise sighed. “Well, Coop was right: this place is a little slice of heaven in an already heavenly corner of the world, and that’s saying something.”

Norma laughed. “He’s only been in town for a few weeks and he’s already one of my best customers. At the rate he’s telling people about the place, I won’t need to pay for advertising for the next year.” 

“Can’t beat that,” Denise said, eyeing the menu.

“Do you need a moment with the menu?” Norma asked. “Or would you like to hear our specials?”

Denise glanced back at the door. “I’m actually meeting Agent Cooper here…” she trailed off, considering what to say next. Her time in Twin Peaks was likely to be nearing an end. Surely Cooper was going to be able to clear his name and set the world to rights again. He always did. But in the meantime, here she was, a million miles from anywhere, and while the people she’d met during her stay had been wonderful, she had to admit that she barely knew them. 

She was struggling with a problem she didn’t know how to fix, and Norma seemed as nice as anyone…

She folded the menu closed and set her hands down on top of it. “Actually Norma, I’m in a bit of a quandary and I don't know what to do.”

Norma set the metal-bottomed coffee pot on the end of the table. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Denise felt sheepish. “Well…you see…I’ve been invited to Doug Milford’s wedding, but—well, I didn’t exactly pack anything that would be appropriate to wear to a formal event. Oh, I have skirts and shoes and enough pantyhose to last until kingdom come, sure, but evening wear?”

Norma smiled and nodded, knowingly, and suddenly Denise felt as though she were talking to her own mother instead of a near-total stranger. 

“You need to buy a dress and you don’t know where to start?” she offered. “Twin Peaks might be a nice little town but it does leave a bit to be desired when it comes to fashion.”

Denise nodded. “In a big city, I’d have no trouble walking into any department store and finding what I need. But in a small town…well, I suppose I’m wondering where a girl like me can find something…”

Norma thoughtfully cocked her head to the side. “Well, there’s a nice frock shop on Main Street, and a smaller boutique just around the corner from there,” she said, making a bit of a face as she lowered her voice, “But—woman to woman—their selection can be a little… _dated_.”

Denise grinned.

“I’d say your best bet is to go straight to Horne’s,” Norma continued. “They bring in shipments all the time from Seattle, and they have quite the selection. You should have no trouble at all finding something to wear to Dougie’s wedding.”

Denise sat back in her seat and sighed. “Norma? You’re an angel.”

Norma flashed one of her trademark megawatt smiles. At the same moment, the chime above the door sounded. Norma’s smile disappeared as she cast her eyes down for a moment before picking up the coffee pot, her grip angry and firm around the black plastic handle.

Curious, Denise half-turned in her seat and spied a man with sandy blonde hair and a leather jacket steering his way around the counter to the employee entrance. The man waved at Norma. “Afternoon ladies,” he said, his voice dripping with put-on faux sincerity that Denise could smell a mile away. She didn’t like him one bit.

The man dropped a brown box on the counter and unlocked a door beneath it before stashing the box inside and disappearing into the kitchen.

Denise glanced up at Norma. From the look on her face, this was someone Norma wasn’t overly fond of either. In all their years of friendship, Denise had learned a thing or two from Cooper about how to read a person, and while she was nowhere near his level of uncanny intuition, she had developed a knack for this sort of thing given the right situation. 

Here? It was clear that Norma and this leather-jacketed street tough weren’t simply business partners, although they both had a stake in the relationship. Siblings didn’t seem to fit, either. No, if Denise were a betting woman, she’d put all her money on husband and wife; Norma, poor thing, was married to a man she didn’t like very much anymore, probably because the guy had just gotten out of prison, and also because he was in direct violation of his parole…

“Who’s the muscle?” Denise asked, her voice low enough to not intrude but firm enough that she wouldn’t be ignored.

“That’s Hank. My husband,” Norma said. 

_Bingo_ , Denise thought. “Recent parolee?”

Norma seemed surprised. “How did you know that?”

_That’s two,_ Denise thought. _Shall I go three for three? Tell the poor woman that her husband is probably trafficking drugs into town? That the box he put under her countertop is likely full of cocaine, and that it may very well be the same cocaine that Agent Cooper was accused of selling? Maybe I could get a sample right here and now, something that will match the cocaine found in Coop’s car. I could send it to the lab and have this whole case solved by this time tomorrow._

Of course there was probably more to it—who was Hank working with? where were the drugs coming from? how was the whole operation being financed?—and her mind was in motion. As the gears turned she realized that there was more work to do today than she had thought. Denise didn’t want to blow it all up simply for the sake of showing off. Instead of saying anything, she replied with: “Lucky guess, I suppose.” 

A second chime at the door rang out, and this time Norma greeted the customer with her warmest smile yet. Denise didn’t have to turn around to know that Cooper had arrived.

Norma retrieved a second ceramic coffee cup and returned to the table as Cooper slid into the booth across from Denise. 

“You know the way to a man’s heart,” Cooper said, smiling up at Denise as he grabbed a menu from the end of the table. “What are we having today, Agent Bryson?”

Denise swept her hair back over her shoulder. “Whatever it is, I’m gonna need to get it to go,” she said, looking at Cooper apologetically. “I may have just had a break in your case.”

Rather than looking disappointed, Cooper seemed relieved. He leaned back, his hands flat against the table, palms down. “Well that is good news,” he said. “Denise, we can do this another time.”

“How about tonight at the Great Northern?” she asked. “You are going to the Milford wedding, aren’t you?’

Cooper nodded. “As are you, I take it?”

Denise shrugged, “If I can find something to wear.”

Norma, still standing at the head of the table, smiled down at the two federal agents. “Horne’s Department Store. Second Floor. Ladies’ fashions.”

“Thank you, Norma,” Denise said. “And I’ll have an egg salad on white to go, if you don’t mind.”

Cooper ordered the same, but to stay. As Norma disappeared behind the counter again, Denise smiled at her friend. “Boy, this town…”

“It’s something else entirely, isn’t it?”

“Are you still considering your real estate options?”

Cooper nodded as he sipped from his coffee cup. “Yes ma’am,” he said. “More seriously than ever, considering all that’s been happening lately.”

Denise folded her hands across the table top. “Well, if you happen to find a duplex for sale, maybe we can be neighbours.”

Cooper’s smile was as big as Norma’s. “It’s a deal,” he said. 

Norma returned quickly with Denise’s sandwich in a styrofoam container, and Cooper’s on a plate. Denise laid down a bill large enough to cover both meals, with a sizeable portion set aside for gratuity, ignoring Cooper’s protestations. Denise gulped down what was left of her coffee. 

“Now, I’ve got to see a man about a dress and get you off the hook, though not necessarily in that order,” she said. “I’ll see you tonight, Coop.”

With that, she walked out of the diner and into the bright March sunlight outside, the tension in her shoulders melting away as she inhaled the fresh air. Like the diner only moments before, she decompressed, feeling the stressors that had plagued her earlier disappearing with each step towards her car. 

There was work to do.


End file.
